This item is part of Stockwatch's value added news feed and is only available to Stockwatch subscribers.

Here is a sample of this item:

by Will Purcell

The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Thursday was a ho-hum 62-62-138 draw. The TSX Venture Exchange fell fractionally to 790 while polished diamond prices dropped 0.1 per cent. Matt Manson's Stornoway Diamond Corp. (SWY) slid three cents to 76 cents on 4.59 million shares following a grumpy reaction by analysts to the company's third quarter production and sales results from Renard.

Dean Taylor's Diamcor Mining Inc. (DMI), down 1.5 cents to 47 cents on 80,000 shares, sold 7,771 carats of rough during its latest quarter at its Krone-Endora at Venetia project in South Africa. The diamonds were "recovered from continuing exercises performed during the quarter" -- a bit of bafflegab needed to avoid calling an operation that has been running for years, what many investors call it: a mine.

Diamcor got $1.33-million (U.S.) for its gems, an average of $171.70 (U.S.) per carat. It had sold 8,318 carats for $1.85-million (U.S.) during the previous quarter, averaging $222.52 (U.S.) per carat. Mr. Taylor, the company's Kelowna-based president and chief executive officer, says the latest result was nevertheless pleasing given the "continued price weaknesses in certain categories of rough diamonds" during the period. He says that the price achieved is "indicative of the overall quality" of Krone-Endora's diamonds. Diamcor has now sold $20.4-million of diamonds in a little over four years, in what appears to be one of the longest bulk sampling programs ever undertaken. (In Africa, such tests are usually called trial mining exercises.) Whatever the name, the company's "operating activities" have generated about $6-million in net income over that span, suggesting the exercise has been a success.

The remainder is available to Stockwatch subscribers.
Sign-up for a FREE 30-day Stockwatch subscription and SEE NO ADS